~ Be Your Own Hero

Monthly Archives: January 2016

The New York Initiative started 2015 by calling an open meeting for all previous volunteers, in order to brainstorm new projects and outreach work for the year. This led to a number of new pieces of work, as follows, which made up our focus for the year:

– Weekly homeless outreach events, providing much-needed resources to homeless people in New York City, funded by or donated to the NYI
– Regular crime prevention patrols, focusing on Harlem in particular after some high profile hate crimes against minority groups
– Public safety patrols, resulting in the team providing immediate first aid to victims of drug or substance abuse
– Providing assistance to other local activism or outreach groups, including BEACON and Superheroes Anonymous
– Collaboration with other visiting RLSH, such as Jaguar, Artemis and others, and traveling to other regions to work with local RLSH groups there
– Protesting against immoral legislation, such as Governor Cuomo’s order to physically remove homeless people from the streets of NYC
– Standing in vigil for fallen NYPD officers, killed in the line of duty
– Attending local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training in order to generally raise the team’s skill levels
– Promoting community fund-raising events for other local and national teams
– Featuring in a number of regional and global media articles to generally promote positivity and the work of the Initiative

In addition, Spectre has been regularly co-hosting our Heroes 101 radio show, and raised almost $5,000 for the St Jude’s Children’s Hospital in sponsorship for the Miss Fits 4 Life team’s Warrior Dash event! You might also spot Spectre dancing to Uptown Funk on a video to promote Project HOPE in San Diego, as well as narrating the Taking Initiative: Nation of Heroes documentary!

Why a “Year In Review”? Three reasons: to show potential recruits and the curious exactly what we do; to celebrate the hard work and accomplishments of our teammates; to inspire anyone who’s wanting to help their communities with very little or no money, and with or without a team.

JANUARY: The VAI teamed up with a local high school group for a winter coat drive. Over 20 coats and sweaters were collected for donation to homeless shelters in the area.

FEBRUARY to JULY was a bit of a hiatus as Jason (Ira) and Allison (Sakura) were busy planning their upcoming wedding and settling into new jobs.

JULY: Jason and Allison were married by RockNRoll and standing by Jason’s side as groomsmen were NightBug, Vector and Kaptain Blackheart of Sector III. Later in the month they collected donations for the Samaritan House – An organization that helps families that have been affected by violence and homelessness foster personal safety, growth and self-sufficiency.

AUGUST: They teamed up with GEICO and Stop Hunger Now to package 10,000 nutrient rich meals for distribution to the undernourished globally. Stop Hunger Now is an organization focused on ending hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable, and creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources. Later in the month the VAI conducted another clothing, book, and shoe drive to donate to the Vietnam Vets of America – An organizations that promotes and supports issues important to Vietnam veterans, creates new identities for this generation of veterans, and to change public perception of Vietnam veterans.

SEPTEMBER to DECEMBER: Collected over 1,000 pounds in donations of dry and household goods for The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore – An organization geared towards eliminating hunger in the community by distributing food to over 400 Partner Agencies including soup kitchens, food pantries, and emergency shelters and Programs like Mobile Pantry, Kids Cafe® and BackPack Programs. We also made connections and will be planning to participate in events with a local organization called Hounds for Heroes – An organization who provides specially trained rescued dogs to Veterans who have been medically diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or an equally debilitating psychiatric injury which prohibits them from leading a full and meaningful life. Jason and Allison found out they were going to be parents to a new little heroine or hero!

Why a “Year In Review”? Three reasons: to show potential recruits and the curious exactly what we do; to celebrate the hard work and accomplishments of our teammates; to inspire anyone who’s wanting to help their communities with very little or no money, and with or without a team.

The Tennessee Memphis Initiative (TMI) 🙂 participated in several community events including homeless outreach and neighborhood clean-up.

In October, members of the TMI, along with their team, the MissFits 4 Life, helped to raise over $25,000 for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. The MissFits 4 Life took part in their fourth Warrior Dash Mud Run in Nashville, TN. After, the team traveled to Memphis to visit St. Jude’s.

We are now 3 members strong with Sweetie Pie, Bio Hazard and Hardway. We cleaned up playgrounds and bridges in our area, provided much needed warm clothing and food to homeless folks in our area and aided several other organizations in getting food from local restaurants that might have been discarded to local shelters.

Why a “Year In Review”? Three reasons: to show potential recruits and the curious exactly what we do; to celebrate the hard work and accomplishments of our teammates; to inspire anyone who’s wanting to help their communities with very little or no money, and with or without a team.

2015 saw the Seattle, Washington branch of the Initiative Collective decrease in number as the founder, John Drop, parted ways with the group to focus on going back to college. Is there ever a better reason to lose a volunteer??

We conducted two major homeless outreach events (January and March), a needle pickup in the Eastlake neighborhood of Seattle collaboration with RockNRoll of the California Initiative as well as SkyMan and White Baron of ECHO, and Boomer of USID (May, pictured), provided ‘oracle’ (technology) services in conjunction with USID and ECHO for the May Day Riots on Capitol Hill, and orchestrated numerous clothing collections for local homeless. In June, Krystal (Temper) and her husband, James (Evocatus) were married in a ceremony presided over by RockNRoll, and then welcomed their daughter into the world in late July. December saw the planning of “Care Packs for Vets”, a huge undertaking in helping combat veterans battle PTSD around high-stress times. We also traveled to San Francisco to join the California branch in a needle pickup patrol and short documentary film shoot.

Why a “Year In Review”? Three reasons: to show potential recruits and the curious exactly what we do; to celebrate the hard work and accomplishments of our teammates; to inspire anyone who’s wanting to help their communities with very little or no money, and with or without a team.

This was, without a doubt our busiest year yet. With two, sometimes three events happening in a single weekend, we had our hands full. The rewards were great and the effects, long-term. We hope. 🙂

January

-3 As CERT team members, we helped to locate a missing 80 year-old man.

-10 We picked up a record 183 needles.

-17 We had a burrito/PBnJ outreach in San Francisco.

-25 We picked up 71 needles.

-31 We picked up another 29 needles.

February

-14 The Superheroines Initiative prepared and served 300 meals, included homemade desserts to people in Civic Center, SF.

-15 We patrolled the East Bay Comic Con and met up with our Lightsaber instructor and founder of the Golden Gate Knights Lightsaber Academy, Alain Bloch.

-18 We started delivering our weekly Meals on Wheels, where we met this former astronaut.

-20 We took a road trip to southern Cal to meet up with other heroes and villains.

-24 We joined the Golden Gate Knights for a morning of filming by a Japanese TV crew.

March

-2 We met fellow RLSH, Vic Tim Gadgeteer in person.

-4 Rock N Roll was asked to speak to students at Amador Valley High School.

-8 We held another free self-defense class in Berkeley.

-12 We joined Tedd and Charity, members of the Legacy Initiative for a homeless outreach in Maui.

-28 The Superheroines Initiative held a Mardi Bras fundraising concert to supply homeless women with undergarments.

April

-6 We picked up 19 needles.

-7 We launched a music video featuring RLSH to promote Project HOPE:

-18 We patrolled the Big Wow Comic Fest.

-19 We picked up 15 needles.

-25 We patrolled the Fanime convention.

May

-2 We picked up 91 needles. Later that night we attended the Star Wars night at the Cat Club in San Francisco.

-3 The Superheroines Initiative gave out 130 bag lunches in Berkeley.

-4 Local television news anchorman, Frank Somerville, blogged about us.

-7 We make our weekly Meals on Wheels food deliveries to the elderly and the ill.

-9 The Superheroines Initiative is invited to participate in the San Francisco Porch Fest and the Wonder Women and SuperSheroes Art Exhibit.

-28 We picked up another 28 needles.

-31 We traveled to Seattle, WA and joined the Washington branch of the Initiative and several other RLSH in a needle pickup. We collected 70 needles.

June

-5 We hosted a Hip Hop night of charity in Oakland.

-6 We taught a free self-defense class in San Francisco.

-13 Treesong and Grace, of our Illinois Initiative branch got married, while Rock performed the nuptials for another wedding on the same day. This time, it was Temper of the Washington Initiative branch who was marrying Evocatus, former member of the now-defunct Rain City Superhero Movement.

-15 We visited the house of the Goonies in Astoria, OR. Later we visited fellow RLSH and friend, KnightOwl in Portland.

-19 The Superheroines Initiative was featured in our local paper.

-28 The Superheroines Initaitive and the California Initiative walked in the San Francisco Pride Parade as part of the PFLAG group. And we met Adam Savage and his mom.

-2 Rock did a solo needle pickup patrol at some playgrounds in SF and found 13 needles.

-8 We traveled to Salt Lake City, UT to film shots of the Legacy Initiative at work.

-9 We held a free self-defense class for Legacy Initiative members.

-9 We gave our collected bras to Charity for Freethegirls.org.

-13 We delivered our weekly Meals on Wheels.

-20 The second episode of our documentary web series is released.

-30 We picked up 72 needles.

September

-4 Rock asked for donations to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in lieu of birthday presents and raised 1,000 in one day!

-5 We picked up 59 needles.

-12 We picked up 41 needles.

-14 Rock celebrated her birthday with a superhero karaoke party.

-19 We had a homeless outreach Street Boutique and a needle pickup patrol later in the day.

-26 We picked up 37 needles.

October

-3 We picked up needles.

-10 We traveled to Nashville, TN to take part in the Warrior Dash Mud Run. Our team, the MissFits 4 Life, continues to be the top fundraising team in the US. In the past four years we’ve raised over $74,000.

-17 We picked up 91 needles.

-19 We took part in a Star Wars film shoot.

-24 Spectre of the NY branch of the Initiative flew into town for the Oracle convention and while he was here, he joined us in a homeless outreach Street Boutique, and on the same night, sang on stage with us at the sold out ScreamFest Film Festival.

-25 Still joined by Spectre, we joined Tania of “Tania’s Army” and did a Lupus walk in Golden Gate Park. Later that day, we picked up 70 needles.

-29 We picked up 29 needles.

November

-9 to 20 We hopped on a train and took a trip to New York for a family gathering. We rode the train back, too.

-21 We were asked to perform a Lightsaber duel at a friend’s birthday party.

-22 We performed at a charity gig in San Francisco.

-26 We were joined by a group of students from Norway and we collected 46 needles.

December

-3 We were joined by members of the Washington Initiative and a documentary film crew who followed us on our needle pickup.

-4 We held a homeless outreach Street Boutique in Berkeley and were filmed there, too.

-12 We finally hit a four-year total of 7,000 needles!!!

-18 The high school class that Rock talked to earlier in the year were inspired to have their own outreach event, so they raised funds, gathered supplies and met up with us to pass out 300 bag lunches, blankets and clothing.

Later that night, we joined thousands of other Bay Area residents in the rain for a record-setting Lightsaber battle in San Francisco.

-20 We had a team cookie-exchange holiday party.

-21 We filled the Toys For Tots box for the second year in a row.

-25 We raised funds, bought and assembled 300 wrapped presents filled with beanies, socks, food and toiletries. We passed these out in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco on Christmas Day.

-31 We delivered our last meals of the year.

If you’d like to join a group that makes a real difference in their community, please contact us.
We walk the walk.